LETTER: Trump has history of debasing women

According to the Huffington Post, an anonymous “Jane Doe” filed a federal lawsuit against GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump, accusing him of raping her in 1994 when she was 13 years old. Mainstream media has ignored the filing.

Two prior women have accused Mr. Trump, in court documents, of actual or attempted sexual assault. Mr. Trump has denied all of the allegations.

First was Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, who said under oath in a 1989 deposition that he had violently attacked her, ripped out her hair and forcibly penetrated her without her consent. According to the Daily Beast, she claims he was wildly angry that she’d referred him to a cosmetic surgeon who had botched a “scalp reduction” job (to cover a bald spot) and caused pain in his scalp — hence the vindictive yanking on her hair. At the time, Ms. Trump said she felt “violated” by the alleged “rape.”

A second woman accused Donald Trump of sexual assault in 1997. According to The Guardian, then 34-year-old Jill Harth alleged in a federal lawsuit that Trump violated her “physical and mental integrity” when he touched her intimately without consent after her husband went into business with him, leaving her “emotionally devastated and distraught.” The lawsuit called the multiple acts “attempted rape.” Shortly thereafter she voluntarily withdrew the case when a parallel suit against Mr. Trump brought by her husband was settled. When The Guardian reached the woman in 2016 to ask whether she stood by her sexual assault allegations, she responded, “yes.”

In a court filing, according to a report, Ms. Harth alleged that while she and her husband were trying to do a business deal with Mr. Trump regarding a beauty pageant, he repeatedly propositioned her for sex and groped her, culminating in this frightening alleged incident.

Mr. Trump has a long history of debasing the women he’s worked with, crossing the line on a regular basis. He’s taken lifelong joy in objectifying women, including his proclamation: “Women, you have to treat ‘em like sh-t.”